H.I.G. Capital Backs MBO of Kondor
LONDON – March 17, 2014 H.I.G. Europe, the European arm of global private equity investment firm H.I.G. Capital, announced today that it has backed the management buyout of Kondor, a fast growing specialist provider of mobile and consumer electronics accessories into the UK and European retail markets. Terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 1994, Kondor has evolved alongside the rapid growth in the smartphone and tablet market and today supplies a wide range of accessories including headphones, cases and speakers. The Company has built its success on identifying trends, particularly to help fulfil the boom in personalising accessories, as mobile electronic devices become increasingly “must have” items for the consumer. Its end to end service offering combined with its ability to provide real time data to its customers on how to maximize sales have made it the “go to” player in this sector. Global brands that Kondor partners with include Beats By Dr. Dre, Skullcandy, Sony and Samsung.
Kondor supplies more than 10,000 products into more than 11,000 stores in the UK and 7,500 outlets across Europe. UK customers include John Lewis, Dixons, Tesco, Carphone Warehouse, Argos, O2 and Everything Everywhere. Kondor’s state-of-the-art ecommerce platform also allows it to integrate seamlessly with a customer’s online operations. Major online partners include Amazon and Ebay.
The Company, which employs 200 people in its Christchurch, Dorset, headquarters and Hong Kong sourcing office, ships up to 270,000 units per week. Kondor expects to generate revenues of over £100m in 2014. The purchase, from Kondor’s founder, is led by Kondor’s chief executive Robert Haycock, who joined Kondor in 2005.
Paul Canning, Managing Director, H.I.G. Europe, said: “Kondor is the established UK market leader in this sector and management has ambitious plans to continue to expand both in the UK and internationally. This aligns perfectly with H.I.G.’s experience and expertise. We look forward to working with them in supporting their growth plans.”
Robert Haycock, Chief Executive of Kondor, said: “Kondor is well positioned to deepen and broaden its client relationships – more and more of whom are taking advantage of our fully integrated offering. With H.I.G.’s support, we can ensure our customer offering continues to be the industry benchmark whilst we continue to grow.”
Kondor marks H.I.G. Europe’s maiden investment from H.I.G. Europe II, the €825m fund which closed last year.
About Kondor
Kondor is a major distributor of consumer electronics accessories. Kondor has been focused on consumer electronics accessories for 20 years and has a proven record in supplying a full category-managed solution to grocers, networks and specialist channels. We deliver solutions and propositions that set the industry standard, rather than following it. Kondor supplies more than 50 major brands, from Beats by Dre, Harman/Kardon, Nokia, Port Designs, Samsung, Skullcandy, Sony, Speck, Supertooth and TDK. Customers include 3, Amazon, Argos, Asda, Boots, Dixons, Carphone Warehouse, eBay, Everything Everywhere, Halfords, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Maplins, O2, Phones 4 U, Sainbury’s, Selfridge’s, Shop Direct, Tesco and WHSmith and we have the largest coverage of the travel sector, supplying to the likes of British Airways, Easy Jet, P&O Ferries and Stena Line.
For more information on the product range please visit www.kondor.co.uk
About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. is a leading global private equity investment firm with more than €11 billion of equity capital under management. Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York and San Francisco in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, H.I.G. specializes in providing capital to small and medium-sized companies with attractive growth potential. H.I.G. invests in management-led buyouts and recapitalizations of profitable and well managed manufacturing or service businesses. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 200 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 80 companies with combined sales in excess of €22 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.hig.com.